By LARRY VAUGHT
Kentucky coach John Calipari goes into this season without any real handle on what will or will not work best for his team.
“There is all kind of stuff you can try, but what will work,” said Calipari at Thursday’s UK Media Day.
“The beginning will be the same. We will probably do more scrimmaging earlier than I did last year. Normally I have four or five practices planned, but I have two and those are in pencil. I like my team. I really do.”
Calipari says he is spending even more time working now than ever before.
“I am trying to go harder to keep everybody around me staying on my toes,” Calipari said.
That includes sophomore point guard Ryan Harrow, who sat out last year after transferring from North Carolina State.
“Ryan Harrow is ahead of the game because he was here, but he did not play. Now he has to go in the game and play,” Calipari said. “People are going to look at him and be physical. He has to play through that. He is out of mold of Brandon (Knight). But Brandon was a crazy worker. Ryan is skilled, fast, pretty good athlete.
“He can score the ball. He is skilled like Brandon was. He is becoming a good lay-up shooter playing through bumps. He is getting better.”
Calipari also said that freshman Archie Goodwin is impressing him with his demeanor.
“He is looking more and more out of the mold of Deandre (Liggins) and Michael (Kidd-Gilchrist). He can guard two or three positions,” Calipari said.
He also noted that freshman Alex Poythress is the “most conscientious player” he has had since Knight left the program two years ago after getting UK to the Final Four.
4 Responses to Calipari will do more scrimmaging early to try to figure out what will work for new team
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I love it when Cal says he likes his team. That means nothing but trouble for the opponents.
Me too, True Blue, but I think he says that every year. Although, frankly, I’m sure it’s true every year, and well, so far, so good.
I don’t believe, for a second, that Cal doesn’t have any kind of handle on what will work best for his team. I think he has numerous ideas and just has to figure out which are the very best of the best. This is going to be an incredibly versatile team and I think he is fighting an overwhelming urge to brag about it.
We can all relax. He has this.
Ditto